Dialogue, Skill and Tacit Knowledge

Everyone in an organization, from cleaner to CEO, has expert knowledge. Yet only a fraction of it can be codified and expressed explicitly as facts and rules. A little more is visible implicitly as accepted procedures, but even this is only the beginning. Submerged beneath the explicit and implicit levels is a vast iceberg of tacit knowledge that cannot be reliably accessed by traditional analytical approaches. And yet, without it, organizational learning means little. Interweaving theory with practical guidance, this book looks at the importance of tacit knowledge and shows how it is now being put in motion through groundbreaking analogical thinking methods. Chief among these is the Dialogue Seminar, developed by the editors, in which learning is seen as arising from encounters with differences. There can be no consensus on the value of corporate knowledge until what is meant by that knowledge is discussed and defined. Based on two decades of research and a host of practical cases, this book offers a way forward. "Göranzon argues that the question of whether machines can think is not the right question to ask. The more important question, he believes, is the impact of automation on work and human skills, and he is looking for a way of describing skills that allows us to discuss this question." —Janet Vaux, New Scientist "A Swedish initiave to rethink the relationship between learning and work." —Rolf Hughes, The Times Higher Education

List of Contributors ix Introduction 1 Richard Ennals Part 1 Dialogue and Skill 7 Chapter 1 The Practice of the Use of Computers: A Paradoxical Encounter between Different Traditions of Knowledge 9 Bo Göranzon Chapter 2 Writing as a Method of Reflection 22 Maria Hammarén Chapter 3 The Dialogue Seminar as a Foundation for Research on Skill 46 Adrian Ratkic Chapter 4 The Methodology of the Dialogue Seminar 57 Bo Göranzon and Maria Hammarén Part 2 Theatre and Work 67 Chapter 5 A Dwelling Place for Past and Living Voices, Passions and Characters 69 Erland Josephson Chapter 6 Theatre and Knowledge 73 Allan Janik Part 3 Case Studies 85 Chapter 7 Dialogue Seminar as a Tool: Experience from Combitech Systems 87 Niclas Fock Chapter 8 Maximum Complexity 110 Christer Hoberg Chapter 9 Better Systems Engineering with Dialogue 135 Göran Backlund and Jan Sjunnesson Chapter 10 Some Aspects of Military Practices and Officers’ Professional Skills 152 Peter Tillberg Chapter 11 Science and Art 175 Karl Dunér, Lucas Ekeroth and Mats Hanson Part 4 Dialogue Seminar As Reflective Practice 187 Chapter 12 Tacit Knowledge and Risks 189 Bo Göranzon Chapter 13 Skill, Storytelling and Language: on Reflection as a Method 203 Maria Hammarén Chapter 14 Reading and Writing as Performing Arts: at Work 216 Øyvind Pålshaugen Chapter 15 Knowledge and Reflective Practice 229 Kjell S. Johannessen Chapter 16 Dialogue, Depth, and Life Inside Responsive Orders: From External Observation to Participatory Understanding 243 John Shotter Part 5 Tacit Knowledge and Literature 267 Chapter 17 Rule Following, Intransitive Understanding and Tacit Knowledge: An Investigation of the Wittgensteinian Concept of Practice as Regards Tacit Knowing 269 Kjell S. Johannessen Chapter 18 Henrik Ibsen: Why We Need Him More Than Ever 295 Allan Janik Part 6 Conclusions 305 Chapter 19 Theatre and Workplace Actors 307 Richard Ennals Chapter 20 Training in Analogical Thinking: The Dialogue Seminar Method in Basic Education, Further Education and Graduate Studies 320 Bo Göranzon, Maria Hammarén, Adrian Ratkic Index 334